


Because the colour of the universe is black

by silverbluebranch9298



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, Betrayal, Bombing, Character Death, Death, Death penalty, Dictatorship, Familicide, Fire, Gen, Indiscriminate killing, Killing, Mass Death, Outer Space, Post-Apocalypse, Rebellion, Secret Messages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 09:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16405901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverbluebranch9298/pseuds/silverbluebranch9298
Summary: As a world-engulfing flood wiped out all beings on Planet Earth, a teenage girl escaped to her family's private space station. But when hints of rebellion arose, threatening her mother's military dictatorship on the station's human population, she was forced to choose between two of her loved ones.





	Because the colour of the universe is black

**Author's Note:**

> Basically I had a dream and it was so vivid that I decided to write it down.

The water was rising quickly. Waves after waves splashed angrily against the walls, causing booming sounds. In the sky, the sun was still casting brilliant rays upon the gold-flecked cotton clouds, oblivious to the calamity falling upon the land. Or perhaps, it was rejoicing; mankind had not been kind to the earth.

I pulled down the curtains, replacing the colourful scene with a bleak grey screen.

A few minutes later, upon separating the curtains again, the outside view was neither blue nor transparent glass, but an empty darkness devoid of life. Here and there were flickers of sparkling stars, but they were gone in a moment as the darkness reigned once more.

When the sign flashed red, the curtains were closed once more. I only realized we had arrived in our destination when the artificial gravity system in the spaceship gradually decreased, switching to a more realistic planet-based system.

Sometimes I felt so angry, so full of resentment at the advanced technology that could fake living conditions in perfection. Earth was supposed to be our precious mother planet, her soil seeped in blood and tears of our forefathers and filled with ancient history and culture. Earth was a unique existence.

Until humans took that away, as in the past when they had slowly worked the planet until minerals were nothing but folklores.

I should have been among those whose limbs were flailing in the water, drowning to atone for our crimes. I should have been dead.

Instead, I was here, in a private space station that barely worth a dent in my family’s assets.

~0~0~

My mother had summoned me for some kind of discussion.

My eyes immediately went to the woman locked in an electronic cage in the midst of the room. Her head was casted down, and her skin was pale and shrunken, as if her misery had devoured her from the inside. Black hair, once glossy and well-cared for, hang lifelessly in front of her face.

“This woman tried to steal from our grain storage,” my mother said emotionlessly. “The penalty is death.”

The sentiment was chorused by the ring of people surrounding the cage.

Yet her fingers still waited firmly on the control board. Waiting for her daughter’s agreement.

The officers were casting their gazes on me, some expectant, some calm and collected. The answer was obvious. No hint of doubt appeared in their eyes that I would give a different answer. After all, I _was_ the daughter of my mother.

If I refused, would she released my former maid and restored her status? Or would she arranged for a gruesome accident, far more painful than an electric shock, and spread the word that my former maid, in a moment of desperation, had committed suicide?

“Death,” I replied and walked away without looking back.

~0~0~

There was a robbery at Building A-12, Eastern Complex. The security units caught a foreign trading ship trying to escape from the station, so they dispatched the battleships and shot them down within three minutes. The stolen goods, which consisted mainly of food, were deemed destroyed along with the ship and its crew.

When my cousin and I entered the building, the leading officer assured me that there was nothing unusual about the case.

“Those bastards are always greedy, so this kind of petty thing is quite common. Don’t worry, miss, the total food storage won’t be affected anyway.”

I frowned. “Could there have been a traitor?”

His surprise was genuine. “A traitor? Of course not, miss, our servants should know better. Though the guards during that shift were already punished severely, just in case.”

Dismissing him with a flick of my hand, I turned to my cousin, who had been silent since the start of the conversation. She was smiling, but her eyes were cold.

“That officer spoke true, cousin. Who would ever betray Madam?”

The momentary iciness in her tone faded as she took my hand. I went back to my residence.

~0~0~

Instead of water, sizzling golden flames were everywhere.

The searing heat assaulted me in torturous waves, slowly boiling my organs and turning my skin into coal-black patches. A river of sweat poured down relentlessly, only to evaporate in the relentless flames. I stumbled out of my bed and staggered towards the hallway.

The world was on fire.

Screaming and pleading sounds reverberated in the air, cut short by ruthless gunshots. People in black garbs – once a marking of their lowly status, now a blood-soaked symbol for the grim reaper – were killing indiscriminately, laughing madly as they pulled their triggers. Unfortunate officers or their families who stood up and resisted were instantly filled with countless holes from many directions.

Somebody grabbed me from behind and dragged me outside. My cousin was standing in front of the rebels, gazing reverently at the trembling building.

“Today marks an era of liberation, of freedom for the oppressed. No longer will we bow our heads while our families are sentenced to death. No longer.”

She was talking to me, yet her words were directed to her followers.

“The person called Madam has been killed. Though you are her daughter, we will not pin her crimes on you. We do not murder the innocent like she had done.”

Her face was devoid of feelings, but I could detect a trace of concern, deep within her eyes. I only smiled bitterly.

If you were not murderers, then why was there still screaming? Why were people still dying?

My mother might have been severe and merciless, but she had loved me. They killed her, and now she was gone.

My cousin loved me as well. I could feel that love as I closed my eyes and pressed the button.

And so the world got drowned in flames.

~0~0~

_“I know there’s a secret rebellion that my mother is unaware of. I know my cousin is leading it._

_If I tell my mother, my cousin will be executed, and probably most of her followers as well. If I don’t tell my mother, it will be my mother who will be killed for the sake of liberation. I can try to stop it, but I know my cousin will never give up. One way or another, she will take revenge for the people whom my mother killed or die trying._

_I have decided. The rebellion will succeed, but the price will be steep._

_My mother and my cousin cannot co-exist, and I am not willing to create a world with only one of them alive. I must take revenge on whoever is left._

_May whoever that finds this message tell future generations about this piece of history, about how humans are flawed in our very nature. We destroy one another in our quests, until nothing is left._

_Perhaps – nothing should be left.”_

A secret message hidden somewhere in the universe

 


End file.
